August 2, 2024
These diaries had regularly prepared reviews of the 2020 Veikkausliiga after it returned from the Covid lockdowns, and then covered two matches in the 2023 season, one of which was Inter Turku’s 1-2 defeat at FC Ilves.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/04/fc-ilves-2-1-inter-turku-att-1221-2023.html
Today’s match was the first game of round 18 of the 2024 season, and was the first visit of these diaries for 2024.
Inter Turku
Turku is the 6th largest city in Finland with a population of just over 200,000, and is located 170km west of Helsinki on the South-Western Baltic coast. Football Club International Turku play in the Veritas Stadion, which now has an artificial surface and a capacity of 9,372, but despite being one of the strongest sides in the country in recent years, the side have won just one league title, way back in 2008.
In 2020, Inter finished second in the Veikkausliiga, and their main man was hugely talented but pantomime villain striker Timo Furuholm, who grabbed 10 goals that season, in and amongst his theatrics in the penalty box. He scored 7 times in 2021 but retired shortly after.
Inter have been slowly regressing since then, finishing 4th, 5th and 6th in subsequent years. They started today day in 7th place with a 6-4-7 record, although their home form was 4-3-2.
However, there were on a run of 5 league games unbeaten, and 8 games including cup matches, but last time out they had been held to a 2-2 home draw by newly promoted Gnistan.
South African forward Darren Smith was their top scorer in the league with 6 goals, followed by ex-Ajaccio Burkina Faso forward Kouame Botue ( 3 caps ) and Timo Stavistski, who has played for Caen and Maastricht, on 4 goals each.
Other players of note in the Inter matchday squad included defender Albin Granlund, who had 21 caps for Finland, playing in Poland for Stal Mielec and Swedish side Orebro, as well as for Mariehamn. German midfielder Florian Krebs had played for both Hertha Berlin and Borussia Dortmund 2nd XIs and midfielder Axel Kouame was from the Ivory Coast. Attacking midfielder Johannes Yil-Kokko had previously played for HJK Helsinki and Irish side Dundalk.
IFK Mariehamn
Mariehamn is located in the Aland Islands, which requires either a flight or ferry to get to, and 88% of the 30,000 or so population are native Swedish speakers. Swedish is the only official language of the islands and it is outside the EU VAT area, so travellers to/from the Finnish mainland can buy goods duty-free.
IFK play at the picturesque Wiklöf Holding Arena, which has a capacity 4,000, and they won the league title in 2016.
In 2020. they faded after a strong start to the season to finish in 9th place, and top scorer Albion Ademi subsequently moved on to play for Swedish side Djurgardens and Varnamo, and is now playing in the Chinese Super League for Tianjin.
IFK have since finished in 10th, 10th and 11th, and only survived last season by overcoming Gnistan 3-0 on aggregate in the promotion/relegation play-off. The subsequent bankruptcy of FC Honka enabled Gnistan to take their place in the Veikkausliiga.
IFK started the day in 10th place with an overall 4-4-8 record, and 2-1-4 away from home. Their two away victories had come at Ekenas ( 2-1 ) and SJK Seinajoki ( 2-0 ). However, they were on a run of four consecutive defeats, the last of which was at VPS ( 1-2 ).
Swedish striker Adam Larsson was their top scorer with 6 goals, followed by Oskari Sallinen and Sebastian Dahlstrom ( 2 caps and who had played for Sheriff Tiraspol, HJK and KuPS ) on three each.
The IFK squad included ex-Vitoria Setubal Portuguese centre-back Pedro Machado, and ex-Paide Linnameeskond and Voluntari Ivorian midfielder Muhamed Olawale. Striker Hugo Cardoso hailed from Cape Verde, Emmanuel Okereke was from Nigeria, and English winger Jaydon Reid had experience at Birmingham City, Barrow and Walsall. Niger midfielder Mamane Amadou Sabo had previously played for Antwerp B and was on loan from Swedish side Hammarby.
Keeper Matias Rikonen and midfielder Matias Ojala had both previously played for Inter
Matchday Information
Mariehamn’s journey to Turku for today’s game would have involved either a 30-minute flight or a 200km journey by ferry and road.
Ticket prices for the game ranged between €12 to €20, although access to the VIP area was available for €61.50.
The weather at the 18.00 kick-off local time ( 16.00 UK ) was 20 degrees but rain was forecast although it never appeared.
Bet365 who live streamed the match made Inter 11/20 favourites, with IFK at 17/4 and the draw at 29/10. The match was also live on Onefootball.com
Despite the odds, IFK had won the two previous meetings between the two sides this season. In the league game in Mariehamn, Krebs had given Inter a first half lead, but two second half goals by Larsson and another from Olawale gave the Islanders a 3-1 victory. In the pre-season League Cup, IFK won 2-0 in Turku, but Inter went on to win the overall competition, beating KuPS 3-2 in the final.
Inter’s average home attendance this season had been 2,649, the 6th best in the division, compared to 1,357 for IFK. The overall average for the Veikkausliiga was 2,938, with HJK Helsinki having the highest with 5,895.
Inter made just the one change from the side that drew at home with Gnistan, with ex-Ararat Yerevan Ivorian defender Dmitri Legbo being replaced by Juuso Hamalainen in a back three.
IFK made three changes to the side that lost at VPS, with Sid, Dahlstrom and Cardoso coming for Ojala, Sallinen and top scorer Larsson, who was missing from the matchday squad due to illness.
Like their Milan namesakes, Inter were playing in blue and black stripes shirts, with black shorts and socks. In a nice feature, small flags for the player’s nationality were on the back of their shirts but their keeper wore a pair of outrageously bright orange gloves which would also have been suitable to guide aircraft to their stands. IFK were in white shirts, green shorts and white socks.
Match Report
The first five minutes of the Onefootball.com coverage was from a camera high in the back of the net that Inter were defending. Fortunately, no major action appeared to be missed, and pictures from the normal TV coverage angles were soon being streamed.
The first effort on goal came in the 10th minute when IFK’s Nissinen turned to latch onto a ball from the left wing towards the penalty spot and shot from 8 yards. Inter keeper Nuuhtanen managed to push the ball onto the post but Dahlstrom headed the difficult rebound wide.
With 20 minutes played, Patut brought down Stavitski midway inside the Mariehamn half-way but the free-kick from Krebs was a fraction too high for Kuittinen, who could only head high into the air, and keeper Rikonen made the easy catch. Shortly after the home side won a corner when a chip towards Djoully Nzoko needed an outstretched foot from Raitanen to prevent the ball reaching the 16 year old Inter forward.
Turku were enjoying a brief good spell and a long ball down the right-hand channel was kept in play by Stavitski, but his cross was headed away from danger.
In the 31st minute Nzoko intercepted a slack pass and made a strong run towards the IFK area before finding Stavitski on the right, but two attempts to play the ball into the penalty area were blocked.
Mariehamn though were playing the ball around nicely, and in the 38th minute Dahlstrom wriggled past Kouame, but his long range attempt lacked power and was easily saved by the Inter keeper. A minute later Cardoso ran at the Inter backline and received a return pass from Dahlstrom, but was crowded out by Krebs and Kuittinen once inside the Inter penalty area, and the ball rolled gently through to Huuhtanen.
Five minutes before the break Kouame play in Smith on the right-hand side, but the South African was forced out wide and opted to turn and play a pass back to Kouame, but the Ivorian’s first time effort from the penalty D went narrowly wide with the keeper beaten.
Shortly after Inter won a corner, which was played long where Niska on the angle of the penalty area played the ball left footed through a crowd of players for it to reach Kuittinen unmarked six yards from goal. The central defender took a touch, taking the ball away from goal, and then as keeper Rikonen dived at his feet in an effort to grab the ball, Kuittinen fell over the prone keeper, and the referee awarded a penalty. For me, these are not fouls, but the studio pundits will say there was contact and so it is a penalty.
Whatever, Smith stepped up to plant the spot-kick into the keeper’s bottom left-hand corner as Rikonen was rooted to the spot. 1-0 after 44 minutes.
Mariehamn responded immediately, and a flowing move sliced through the Inter defence. Dahlstrom’s pass put Olawale clear on goal, and although the keeper partially blocked the close-range effort, Granlund needed to be alert to clear the ball off the line to prevent the equaliser. A minute later Nissinen’s blast from a tight angle was pushed across goal for a corner.
At the half-time whistle, the visitors might have felt a little aggrieved at being a goal behind after an even opening 45 minutes, with few chances. Indeed, the highlights reel shown during the break match it seem a much more exciting game than it had actually been !
Little happened in the opening ten minutes of the second half, apart from a yellow card to IFK’s Raitanen who needlessly elbowed Stavitski in the act of passing to Olawale. Play was scrappy, with neither side able to retain possession as passes repeatedly went astray.
The first real piece of action of the half occurred in the 58th minute when Nzoko sent a shot a few feet wide. Four minutes later there was nearly some confusion between Kuittinen and Huuhtanen in dealing with a long ball towards the Inter area, but Kuittinen was able to put the ball out of play for a throw in for the visitors.
The decisive moment in the match came in the 63rd minute. There was no obvious danger as Nzoko ran away from Raitanen inside Inter’s half close to the half-way line, but the IFK defender decided to needlessly trip the youngster. Despite the looks of disbelieve from the IFK player, it was really an obvious decision for the referee to show a second yellow card. In the space of ten minutes, Raitanen had been shown two unnecessary cards, and perhaps in some other countries there would probably some suspicions as to his motivations………..
As a consequence, down to ten men it was virtually the last that Mariehamn would be seen as an attacking force, and it became just a question of how many ?
Two minutes later Smith picked up a loose ball just outside the IFK area and turned to send a curling shot narrowly past the far post, but it was to be his last contribution as he was immediately substituted !
The impressive Nzoko then did well to get to the left by-line, and his pull back reached Kouame, but the shot was sliced wide from the edge of the penalty area.
However, the second goal was coming, and after Auvinen carelessly gave away possession near the half-way line, Nzoko sent a delightful cross from the left to the opposite angle of the six-yard box where Stavitski’s first time finish was too powerful for the IFK keeper to get a hand to. 2-0 after 71 minutes.
Two minutes later keeper Rikonen needed to come smartly off his line to save at the feet of Botue, then a curling 20 yard shot from Nzoko had to be headed over by Auvinen.
Mariehamn were now looking a beaten side, and they fell further behind 12 minutes from time. Jarvinen’s cute chip found Kouame in space on the right inside the Mariehamn area and his ball across the 6 yard box found Nzoko at the far post, who had the simple task of putting the ball into the empty net, and score a goal his performance richly deserved. 3-0 after 78 minutes.
Stavitski then sent a left-footed curler over the bar, but as both sides then made a raft of substitutions the game fizzled out. Reid did show some nice touches for IFK but had far too little time to make an impact.
At the final whistle, Inter enjoyed the extended adulation from their supporters, and in the end were worthy winners. In 16 year old Djoully Nzoko, they clearly have a huge talent, who is probably already on the radar of talent scouts all over Europe.
For Mariehamn, they looked a decent side until the stupid red card for Raitanen.
Highlights : https://www.veikkausliiga.com/uutiset/2024/08/03/ruutu-huippuhetket-perjantain-fc-inter-ifk-mariehamnista
FC Inter Turku : Huuhtanen – Granlund, Kuittinen, Hamalainen – Jarvinen, Kouame ( Kekarainen ), Krebs ( Yil-Kokko ), Niska – Stavitski ( Tamminen ), Smith ( Botue ), Nzoko ( Lahdensuo )
IFK Mariehamn : Rikonen – Nissinen ( Sabo ), Raitanen, Machado, Auvinen, Enqvist – Sid ( Okereke ), Dahlstrom, Patut – Olawale ( Reid ), Cardoso ( Sallinen )
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